Growing Towards Justice: From Root to Fruit
We cordially invite you to join us for the 2025 Delaware County Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. This event promises to be an unforgettable blend of commemoration, introspection, fun, and love in action.
The theme is drawn from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1967 speech "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community" in which King proclaimed, "The plant of freedom has grown only a bud, and not yet a flower." The statement eloquently reminds us that although important progress has been made, the fight for civil rights has not yet reached full bloom.
The keynote speaker is Dr. Valerie Lee, a retired professor of English and former chair of three Ohio State University academic departments – English, Women's Studies (now Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies), and African American and African Studies. Lee also served a five-year term as the university's Chief Diversity Officer and Vice Provost of Diversity and Inclusion, and a three-year term as Vice President of Outreach and Engagement. Her latest book, "Sisterlocking Discoarse: Race, Gender, and the Twenty-First-Century Academy," was a finalist for the 2021 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Education Category.
Also highlighting the celebration, the Columbus Adventist Academy Children's Choir will perform, directed by Tamaria Kulemeka.